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ERA Radio News Bulletin (Oct.4)

In specially adjusted prison cells in women’s prisons of Korydallos are held since yesterday the leader of Golden Dawn, Nikos Michaloliakos, the deputy leader, Christos Pappas, and the MP of the party, Giannis Lagos. The deputy sergeant, Veta Popori, has been transferred to women’s prisons of Elaionas, while the branch leader of Nikaia, Giorgos Patelis, to Malandrino prison where Giorgos Roupakias is already held in custody.

Files concerning the Golden Dawn MPs awaiting trial are being sent to the Parliament by the Supreme Court prosecutors in order to initiate procedures regarding other crimes for which they are being accused and which involve felonies, they were not caught committing. These are offences such as illegal arms possession on which the Special Permanent Committee on Parliamentary Ethics will have to rule as such cases will require the lifting of parliamentary immunity.

To the fifth investigating Magistrate of Piraeus were presented today, two out of the four people that have been identified by members of the Communist Party of Greece and the Trade Union of Metal, as the assailants of the attack with crowbars and rafters in Perama, on September 12.Both of them took time to submit their confession in the presence of their lawyers on October 15. In the same case, two more people are involved, among which, the leader of the Perama branch of Golden Dawn, who surrendered to the authorities yesterday. The fourth person has not yet appeared to the court. If he does not come voluntarily an arrest warrant will be issued against him, since a notice to appear before the magistrate to submit his confession has already been handed to him.

This morning, the retiree army officer, who is alleged to have a key role in the murder of Pavlos Fyssas, surrendered. According to information, from the records of telephone communications it is indicated that the retired officer has spoken to Roupakias 12 minutes before and three minutes after the murder. The wife and mother in law of Giorgos Roupakias submit their confessions to the magistrate today.

Yesterday the Minister of Justice, Haralambos Athanasiou, has heralded the tabling before parliament of the anti-racist legislation by mid-month in an effort to reconcile the proposals that the parties will submit.

The former Minister of Justice, Antonis Roupakiotis, stated in an interview on “Skai” Tv, that circles from within the Government and Maximou have frozen the anti-racist bill last year in order to bring golden Dawn’s voters back to Nea Dimokratia». Mr Roupakiotis added that the government rushed to exploit politically the case of Golden Dawn. The blood of the unfortunate Pakistani immigrant drowned into oblivion, but society reacted when a Greek was murdered.

«We crushed the neo-nazis», Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said in a speech in New York. He added: «To fight extremism you must make sure that you do not go to extremes yourself».

Meanwhile, a political row has broken out after the Prime Minister’s recent statements in which he presents the opposition as the opposite extreme of Golden Dawn. SYRIZA speaks of an effort to divide the Greek people. The Communist Party of Greece calls it a bundling of communism with the far right, while the Democratic Left notes that the government’s contradictions are not helping.

The Movement against Racism and the Fascist Threat (KEERFA) is organising a two-day long antifascist event. On Sunday, the 6th of October, a protest march is scheduled to be held in Keratsini, in memory of Pavlos Fyssas, who was murdered by members of Golden Dawn.
The Movement’s positions on recent developments are as follows: The release of the heads of the neo-Nazi attack battalions of the Golden Dawn is a move driven by the New Democracy government. The hypocrisy became apparent with the Prime Minister’s cries and those of his ministers, for the crushing of the neo-Nazis under the constitutional arc, and with his party’s command. In order to save the mechanisms that promoted the display of power against the Left and the trade unions, together with its racist policies, Samaras’ government opened the doors of its jails and released neo-Nazi criminals. On the other hand, fighters for freedom and human rights can be detained for up to eighteen months, without having been charged or accused of any crimes at all.

Antifascist gathering will be held today afternoon at 6 p.m. in Agia Paraskevi Square. At 8.30 pm, antifascist concert will take place in Peristeri, in the Metro Station square. Antifascist gathering will be held on Saturday at 12 noon in Thiseio, Athens. A solidarity march in support of the squats will be held tomorrow at the same time, in Thessaloniki and at 6pm a protest gathering is scheduled to be held in Agios Nikolaos square of Volos. The three-day festival in solidarity of «Parartima Squat» is ongoing in Patras. The antifascist documentary, «Stories for extremists», will be screened in Keratsini tomorrow at 8 pm in the framework of promoting the call of the antifascist march organised for the 11 of October.

A three-day Anti-racist festival will be held in Arta, starting today, until Sunday, October 6. The festival will be held in the summer cinema Orpheus, with free entrance and main moto «Because we want to sing freely». Music Bands and Artists from Arta will participate in the festival that is organized by the Friends of Music Society «Avlos».

Other news

Greece has been sentenced by the European Court of Human rights, for the dismissal of an HIV carrier employee, which the Greek courts had accepted as legitimate. In 2005 the HIV positive woman, revealed to her colleagues that she was carrying the virus, and they demanded her dismissal. The employer succumbed to the pressure and his claims were accepted by the Court of Appeals and the decision was upheld by the Supreme Court. The employee appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which judged the decision of Greek courts contrary to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights, and sentenced our country to pay a compensation of 14,430 euro to the woman, for moral and material damage.

Unrest continues in education with university officials reacting strongly to the redundancies of administrative employees in institutions of higher learning. At the same time, a barrage of lawsuits is expected by secondary education teachers who have been made redundant in the wake of favourable court rulings for their colleagues. Many schools remain occupied by students and reactions are growing against internships in businesses.

Nine Syriza MPs denounce the dissolution of Universities through the availability measure, applied on their administrative employees, in a relevant question submitted to the Ministers of Education and Administrative Reform, Konstaninos Arvanitopoulos and Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Speaking on ERT, the former Minister of Administrative Reform Antonis Manitakis referred to the redundancy measures in the public sector. Mr Manitakis characterised the abolition of civil servant posts as illegal. His assessment was that those seeking legal recourse will be vindicated in court and he foresaw an institutional dead-end. In fact, he described the decision as paranoid since it has no restructuring characteristics and offers absolutely no fiscal gain whatsoever.

A significant response from press and internet media was caused yesterday when it was noted in an article in a legislative bill by the Ministry of Administrative Reform that it is left to the discretion of each author of a legislative act whether or not it will be posted to the government site ‘Diavgeia’ in order to gain legal effect.
In a statement issued yesterday the ministry categorically denied this fact, but was forced to admit that the article’s wording was open to interpretation. The statement mentions that the relevant provision (Article 20, paragraph 4) that caused so much discussion will be rewritten “in order to dispel any misinterpretation that is in good, or ill, faith”.

500.000 of Property tax notes for 2013 have sent the General Secretariat of Public Revenue. Recipients are owners with property assessed value over 200.000 euros. The Property Tax of 2013 will be paid in four monthly instalments and the first one will have to be paid until October 30.

The Ministry of Administrative Reform is finally withdrawing its ordinance imposing a 1,000 euro fine for not issuing receipts or for issuing them improperly. Ministry of Finance officials had pleaded ignorance concerning the ordinance in question which foresaw the imposition of an on-the-spot fine of 1,000 euros by the taxation service or the police.

The Ministry of Labour gave Sprider Stores until Monday to present a payment timetable for their redundant employees’ accrued wages and compensation. The criteria to qualify for unemployment benefits, is changing from 1 January 2014. The total unemployment allowance days within a 4 year period, will be reduced from 450 to 400 days. According to sources in the Ministry of Labour, this is the implementation of Article 11 of the Law 3986 of 2011 that restricts the cumulative amount of unemployment allowances within four years. Meanwhile, on Wednesday night in Crete, the Heraklion branch of Sprider Stores was «looted» when the company attempted to remove products from the store using security guards. When they were stopped at a road block in the area of Messara and their car was searched, the sacks they were carrying which supposedly contained olives were found to contain hidden merchandise from the Sprider Stores shop with anti-theft security tags still attached. The private security company’s employees were arrested.

Defence industry workers in the Hellenic Defence Systems (EAS) the Hellenic Vehicle Industry (ALVO) and the LARCO mining company are also in dire straits given that the government must come up with another 1,000 layoffs by the end of the year. Visiting the defence systems at Egio the leader of the Independent Greeks Pavlos Kammenos said: The handling of the closure of the factory in Egio, and of the Hellenic Defence Systems overall, is not a policy with which we simply disagree. It is a criminal act that is punishable on the basis of the constitution and the laws of the Greek state and we as Independent Greeks will pursue legal action.

Employees of the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE) have submitted an appeal to the Council of State requesting cancellation of the transfer of the Hellenic Company for Rolling Stock Maintenance ROSCO to the TAIPED fund for privatisation. The rail workers maintain that the change in ROSCO’s ownership would raise safety issues for the network. They also point out such an action is contrary to national and European legislation.

A ruling by the European Court of Human Rights appears to open the way for claims by Greek nationals on properties seized by the Turkish state. The court unanimously ruled that Turkey should pay damages to the Fokas brothers worth 5 million euros, plus 3% interest for late payment and 15,000 euros for costs and expenses. The case of the Fokas brothers began in 1991 in Istanbul and in 2000 the property they were to inherit was taken over by the Turkish state under a 1964 decree.

Greece may need a new aid package, as it is clear that they will not return to the markets in 2014″ stated the head of the European Support Mechanism (ESM), Klaus Regklingk. In an interview with the German Handelsblatt, he stated that countries that receive support from the mechanism, including Greece, have recorded progress. «Greece started from the most difficult position compared to all other states, and up until now has applied the majority of reforms. “It is quite clear that Greece, will not be able to refinance through the markets with its own bonds, in the next year» and continued, «to this degree, an additional aid package will be probably necessary» explaining that such a decision will be taken by the Finance Ministers of Eurozone”, he added.

No garbage is collected since 3 days now in the Municipality of Hleia, due to the prohibition of use of the Area of Uncontrolled Waste Disposal of Konideika.

Ert news

President and Managing Director of NERIT, was appointed the professor at the National Technical University of Athens, Georgios Prokopakis.
Members of the board of Directors of NERIT S.A., have been appointed, Katerina Evangelakou, Theodoros Karounos, Nikolaos Xanthoulis and Konstantinos Polyzogopoulos, who will cover the position of legal advisor. The president of the Supervisory Board of NERIT, Theodoros Fortsakis, stated: «we had more than 130 remarkable nominations to choose from, for covering the positions of the Board of Directors, and we finally chose based on the criteria set by the law in these independent nominations, in order to reorganize the public television». Immediately after the announcement of the names, the Supervisory Board held its first meeting with the new president and board members.

The government is proceeding to totally wipe clean the slate of 23 years of corruption in the television industry with the comprehensive bill submitted to parliament by the Ministry of the Interior. The tv station operating licenses are abolished in six lines contained in article 43. Under the pretext of granting digital frequencies to network providers, the private television stations that were broadcasting on the 31st of August 2013 were re-baptised as «legal» channels that could henceforth sign legal contracts with the network providers for the digital broadcast of their signal. In this manner the government is navigating past the obstacles of Council of State decisions which ruled that the prolonged extension of temporary legality is unconstitutional.

ERT’s employees continue their dynamic mobilization and invite us today at 9pm at the cinema of ERT’s premises, to watch the screening of the award winning animated film «Persepolis» by Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi. From Iran, with the start of Islamic Revolution, starts the bizarre adventure, the coming of age of young and fearless Marzan, ending up in Paris of today. With self sarcasm, and sharp humour, images from modern Persia come to life, through the audacious, funny and so real story of Marjane Satrapi.